Summary

The Mashroom platform was designed as a scalable, digital ecosystem that simplifies the renting experience for landlords and tenants.

Role

• Researcher
• Senior Product Designer

Skills

• User Research
• Prototyping
• User Experience/Testing
• Product Design

Tools

• Whiteboard
• Trello
• Axure RP
• Figma

The challenge.

There are plenty of digital products that challenge the traditional letting industry.
Yet, less than 10% of the lettings happen 100% online.
Traditional high-street agencies must be doing something right. Right?
Well, yes and no. What the customers of this sector need and want evolves and changes constantly.
Mashroom is a scalable ecosystem born in digital. The service aims to simplify the renting experience for landlords and tenants.

Discovery and planning.

A digital product can’t compete with the service provided by traditional letting agents. During the discovery phase, it was clarified that the digital platform Mashroom would have to offer an end-to-end service – a digital experience with solid ramifications in the real world.

How big is the platform, and how complex is the service? We found out through market research and interviewing potential customers.

Research and strategy.

It is easy to empathise with the customers.
You need to listen; they will tell you about their experiences, ups and downs, pains and hopes.
Based on those findings, we started defining the processes. Those processes are the skeleton of this complex service. And so the first version of the blueprint was born.

The blueprint.

To avoid blind spots and create a solid blueprint, every process has a detailed map.
The maps ‘ validation included everyone responsible or touched by the experience.

Prototype, test, repeat.

With the blueprint in place, the most exciting part began. I was prototyping the journeys to understand how data can be collected without drowning customers in endless forms.
The prototypes were tested with real landlords and tenants. Validated by results, the blueprint for the service got a lot better.

Ready to dress in new clothes.

In parallel with my work, a talented team of brand designers worked hard to shape the “face” and “voice” of this newly born service. The UI designers dressed up the digital experience and prepared it for the Beta version.
A/B tests were performed during this beta version to ensure we got the experience right.

The result.

After the Beta period, the platform was launched.
The preliminary results are encouraging.
Given a bit of time, the platform can become the foundation of a healthy ecosystem for landlords and tenants.
Because of its complex nature, this project was a tough one. At the same time, working with a great team of professionals was a privilege.

Visit mashroom.com

Recommendations

Stepan Dobrovolskiy • Co-Founder • Mashroom

I can't recommend Alin enough. He played a fundamental role in Mashroom product development. Alin joined us when we desperately needed help with creating a prototype. He brought not only a great user experience expertise with him, but also so much needed management skills, research and data collection, reporting and proper communication with development team. Alin is a great user advocate and always proposes win-win solutions for business.

Irini Sala • Marketing & Communications • Mashroom

Alin Buda definitely knows his stuff!
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alin throughout my first year at Mashroom and I’ve never met anyone more openly passionate about his field.
Alin does not like things done superficially and will always go the extra mile to dig deep and find drivers that motivate and lead human behaviour. As a consumer behaviour graduate myself, hearing about Alin’s experiments, conducted both professionally and during his spare time, has been truly interesting and inspiring.
All the insight Alin has acquired throughout his experimenting then translates into an in-depth knowledge of UX that always puts the consumer first.
I honestly recommend Alin, not only as an exceptional UX consultant but also as an insightful connoisseur of consumer behaviour

Alexander Badalyan • Co-Founder • Mashroom

Alin has a “mind palace” where he consolidates and meticulously analyses user, product/development and business requirements, which gives him the ability to effectively transform an idea to an actionable prototype. He has a solid vision backed by years of experience, and is an extremely talented and passionate designer that is not afraid of challenges of complexity. Alin is is also well-versed in branding and can get involved on multiple facets of the business to ultimately reflect on product design. He helped us a lot on our journey from a very early stage vision of a product to one of the most comprehensive experiences out there. He also has a great personality and is fun to be around with.